Swings and Roundabouts
by bubbles264
Summary: He knew they should have been together before now, or 'would have' his brain filled in. In another world. He pondered on this for a moment. With Nikki's confession in Hungary and Harry today, on the surface it all seemed so simple.
1. Chapter 1

_The familiar surroundings did nothing to ease her agony, she looked around again, her eyes scanning her surroundings for even a hint of a movement but it was still. _

_Her mind was filled with unbidden thoughts, which danced around _

_Why do we return at the end? She wondered, why do we revisit all those moments we've tried to forget? Why do we find ourselves re-considering all those decisions we thought we had made for the best? _

_She felt herself sinking to the bottom, realising that fighting was fruitless due to the great weight above her._

_Slowly she gave up and willed the end to come._

_After all she thought, it's always later than you think._

Chapter 1 

The rain on the car roof had become a comforting drone; as it continued Harry found his head getting heavier and heavier and closer and closer to the steering wheel. He forced open his eyes and willed himself to focus on the busy traffic outside. He always hated these mornings, when he had lain awake until the early hours, his mind too frantic to rest. More recently he had sought refuge in idly staring in the direction of his television set whilst it boomed out a garishly bright auction site or other similar rubbish.

His present circumstance was almost becoming routine and he was thankful that London rush-hour traffic allowed him to get brief snatches of sleep whilst driving to work, it seemed that he only really awoke after a steaming mug of coffee was placed in his hands on his arrival at work. You had to love concerned colleagues at times.

As he should have predicted, this morning wasn't turning out to be an exception, he was pleased to see that the clock in his car was still several hours behind and therefore no good for telling him just how late he was running. Fortunately, Leo had spent most of the week at a series of finance meetings so hadn't been around to spot Harry's gradually shifting arrival times.

After he had parked his car and checked twice to see if he had locked it, his half conscious brain having not registered it the first time, he made his way up to the office. At the glass doors, he stopped briefly to hunt through his pocket for the scrunched post-it where he had written the new door code. He typed it in ,gratified that he had the forethought to have scribbled it down.  
"Ah, there you are." The bright voice shattered Harry's early morning trance, he stopped in the doorway with a jolt and a look rather like that of a rabbit caught in car headlights. Hurriedly he pulled back his coat sleeve and reached for his watch , he was surprised to find that, despite his difficulty in getting out of bed that morning, he was not only not late but he had actually managed to arrive early.

He looked up to find the owner of the voice. His boss, Leo, had craned his neck around the door to his office and was staring at him with a look of bewilderment at what Harry guessed was his own surprised expression. In the corner of his eye behind one of the pillars he also spotted a mop of blonde hair belonging to his other colleague disappearing back into the lab, her muffled giggle suggesting that she had probably been watching the whole time.  
"Once you've taken your coat off, you can both come and join me." Leo instructed before his head disappeared back into his office and Harry, as directed, made his way through the lab.

On the desk opposite, Nikki sat with her face in her hands in a fruitless attempt to look like she hadn't just dashed over from the other side of the room. Despite the grin that was plastered on her face, Harry could see the black circles under her eyes and he couldn't help but notice that amongst the general detritus of discarded papers, that she maintained was a working filing system, there were already two half finished cups of coffee. Strangely, the cleaners of the Lyell Centre despite refusing to clear up any of Nikki's clutter still, astonishingly, managed to find her daily collection of mugs. So from this, he came to the conclusion that she had already been in work for some time.

Stopping briefly behind Nikki, he gave her a friendly poke in her ribs, she on cue giggled and smiled at him. This childish reaction did much to brighten his morning and he found himself chuckling to himself as he sauntered over his desk to hand up his coat.  
"How long have you actually been here this morning?" Nikki looked down at the brown folder that contained the report that she had just finished. For a minute, she thought about lying to him but she couldn't bring herself to do it so instead she opted for distracting him and hoped he wouldn't pick her up on it.  
"Why does Leo want to see us?" She replied, noticing her sly aversion Harry's expression turned to one of a playful scowl, before quickly morphing into one of confusion as he tried to think of a reason why Leo would be formally inviting them into his office.  
"Have you been sipping the ethanol bottles again?" He replied with an air of playful seriousness.  
"Have you been dancing with the cadavers?"  
"You caught me, it was the waltz."  
" I wondered who the sequins belonged to."  
Having not yet come up with a worthy reply, Harry was pleased to be interrupted at that moment by Leo, who, having grown tired of waiting for his colleagues to make an appearance had wandered over to find them in the middle of some jovial banter about something he couldn't quite make out.  
"Are you two coming? I've got another meeting at 10."  
Still unnerved by Leo's sudden reappearance, they both hastily stood up and followed him back to the office, heads bowed low like schoolchildren being called to the head's office.  
"Leo, what are these secret meetings about? Have MI5 been contacting you again?" Harry joked alluding to the run of meetings Leo had been occupied with the past couple of weeks, Leo answered him with a look that said 'this really isn't the time for that.' So resigned to waiting, Harry sat down on the leather sofa and reached across to pick up a copy of 'The Informer' that was lying alone on the coffee table. He began leafing through the pages, ignoring his colleagues who stood where they had entered staring at his audacity.

Eventually, Nikki turned to Leo, "I didn't know you read that," she indicated the glossy fronted edition in Harry's hands.  
"I don't." But Nikki recognised his sly smile,the one he used when he was secretly planning an all-nighter in the office, "Not normally."  
Even more curious, she sat down beside Harry and leant over his shoulder in order to peer at what he was so keen to read, however, knowing his colleague well and having predicted this particular move he pulled the edition away from under her nose with a flourish.  
"Leo," she impatiently grumbled at her boss, who after glancing back at the clock and seeing that he still had another few minutes at his disposal decided to let their charade continue, pleased at the distraction it had brought.

Personally he couldn't stand the 'Informer,' it was the type of journal that was trying to be something it really wasn't. It was meant to be the Forensic profession's 'journal of choice' for news and informative articles on all manner of 'forensic' subjects. In fact, its full colour photographs, served little to entice the more studious readers and instead it was mainly the domain of students who were still trying to make up their minds about the profession and those who liked crime novels.  
Leo, was most certainly one of the studious category and on other occasions would have rejected its full page articles on topics such as 'Why science is still cool.'

Eventually, Nikki's impatient foot tapping was too much for Harry, he awoke himself from the reverie and realised that he still wasn't sure why they were all in Leo's office in the first place.  
He piped up and peered over the edge of the paper,"What _did_ you want us for, Leo? I'm quite happy relaxing here but all I can really see is you glancing at the clock every few seconds."  
Leo breathed in deeply then strolled behind his desk, scratching his head as he did so. Harry turned back to his paper and turned the page.

"Ah yah!," Harry cried jolting the paper away from himself as if red hot, it was an action that seemed to imply a mix of horror and two colleagues span round on the spot to face him, their faces holding a mixture of fear and alarm. The paper folded over where Harry had let go and there before them was a half page photograph of the three of them outside the Lyell Center's grey clad exterior.

It wasn't a bad picture Harry thought, Leo looked very professor like with his neatly pressed lab coat and tie; He on the other hand had just come back from a scene so looked rather bedraggled with his hair sticking up at a range of angles and the neck of his jumper slightly off centre; Nikki however seemed odds with both of them, her hair was neatly brushed and styled and she was dressed in a floral blouse. She looked too natural beside the two of them, almost as if she was the focus of the picture and they just happened to be in the background.

Nikki, keen to get a look in tore the page out of his hands and sat heavily down beside him, Leo moved beside her and perched on the arm of the sofa so that he could continue to read over her shoulder. The three read in silence for a while before Leo could hold in his curiosity no longer and taking Harry's murmur of approval as a sign that he had finished finally spoke up,  
"So, Nikki, Harry how does it feel to be "featured professionals?"  
Harry paused to think of a suitable way of putting his reply, "Not sure I agree with the Lyle being 'primed and ready to deal with anything', have they seen Nikki at half past 8 in the morning?" Harry looked across to Nikki but she gave no hint of a reply preferring to reread the article. "But I think they could have done a better job of describing me, I would have liked to have seen the words suave and charming used in there somewhere. I'm not sure headstrong and …...um.. stubborn really does it for me."  
"It may have been slightly influenced by the fact that you spent the day acting like Quincy, running around London trying to track down death cap mushrooms." Nikki replied, " Did you ever tell her that it had nothing to do with the case? Or does that fact she was a 'her' prevent you from doing that?" Harry glared menacingly in her direction, she smiled at him and he mirrored her expression before turning back to Leo. Leo chuckled to himself, remembering how Harry had led the reporter on a trip round the M25 in search of a patch of the now rare mushrooms, convincing her that they held the key to why a young woman had thrown herself off the QE Bridge in the middle of the afternoon. It was a job that would have been accomplished a lot quicker by other researchers in the university but Harry had insisted that she was probably looking for an in-depth article about the scientific processes and not just a picture of him sealing the sample into an envelope.

Sensing a closure to their conversation and having seen Leo glance up once again to his clock, Nikki turned to leave, closely followed by Harry.  
"Before you go," the pair turned back to face him, forgetting their present concerns at the tone of his voice.  
"The meetings I've been having," he hesitated seemingly unaware that both Harry and Nikki were hanging on to his every word. Harry stepped further into the room.  
"They're about cuts they want to make to the university departments," he scratched his head, "Hmm...this department in fact." There was a tangible silence only interrupted by Leo taking a deep breath to steady himself."They want to scale us down."  
Harry breathed in sharply, predicting his next move Leo went on.  
"Before you say anything. I'm still fighting this, hence that damn article. We can't function with just two of us even if we cut down the number of private cases." There was silence again. "You're not meant to know about this yet but I just felt you needed to know, as friends, good friends."  
The silence continued, each were lost in their own thoughts. Harry standing with his fists clenched, Nikki blinking back the tear that she could feel in the corner of her eye and Leo staring between them as if surveying a lost empire.  
Eventually, he spoke. "I would hazard a guess that the only reason that the Principal put the department forward for that article." He pointed at the now discarded paper with their faces staring back at them. "...they agreed to it solely because they want to raise the fees again, we and the Lyell centre are considered one of the university's most impressive assets, ergo we are the ones that get plastered over the front page of 'The Informer'."

"In other words, they're just trying to do all they can to get students to pay up." Nikki answered, barely looking up from where she was running her buttons through her fingers, a distraction she often used in difficult meetings.  
Harry, in his usual role as the joker, saw his opportunity to lighten the atmosphere. "So nothing to do with us being handsomely good looking"  
Leo laughed, "Not so flattering now then."  
" Well, its last one in, first one out." Playfully he punched Nikki on the arm and she span round to face him. She bit down on her lip, trying fruitlessly to calm herself. Eventually the suffocating atmosphere became too much and she fled from the room to seek sanctuary elsewhere. Uncomfortable now at his comment, Harry glanced up at Leo, an unspoken apology, then followed.

"Nikki," he moaned at her, she gave a petulant toss of her head and turned to walk off down the corridor, "don't take it personally," He took off after her, his long stride enabling him to stay a step behind. "Nikki," He repeated, after she failed to slow down. "It might never come to that." Then to himself he muttered, "Not if I can help it."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

On reaching the office, she slowly she lowered herself into her desk chair. She could see Harry hovering behind her, keen to say something that would lighten the situation.  
It was only a matter of moments before their awkward silence was interrupted by the shrill ring of the office phones. Both hands reached out for the handset and there was a brief moment when the two looked straight at each other, then Harry relented letting Nikki pick up the call. He stepped back and slowly moved back to his own desk not taking his eyes of her as he did so.  
"Yes," she replied to the caller, "I'll be there." She reached for her pad of paper and began to fruitlessly search for a pen amongst the chaotic collection of papers that littered her desk. Harry reached out to his own pen pot and selected one to hand to her, she nodded in appreciation and scribbled down the address before replacing the phone.  
" Another case." She stated, it hardly needed saying but she felt she had to say something before leaving him.  
"You ok?" He questioned, fully aware that she was avoiding talking about Leo's announcement, despite his obvious concern about her state of mind.  
"Yes." Again it was a simple statement devoid of any emotion, "I'll see you later."  
With that she picked up her coat and made her way to the door, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts and a large pile of unwritten reports.

The drive to the scene was uneventful and gave Nikki time to analyse what Leo had earlier announced. She didn't blame him for telling them, she knew that the last thing Leo wanted was to lose a colleague. But the idea of her adopted family being broken up scared her, she couldn't remember the last time she felt the feeling of being 'at home.' Harry and Leo had become more than just colleagues to her almost without her realising, to have to start again somewhere else or without them was a situation she really didn't want to consider.

Eventually, without having paid much attention to where she had been driving, she pulled up outside a large georgian farmhouse. It was picturesque with trailing vines of ivy and a white picket fence. Sadly, the police vehicle in its harsh white, yellow and blue uniform spoilt the scene of tranquility and returned her thoughts to why she was here. She opened the door to the car and made her way round to the boot to put on her boiler suit. It was as she looked down to pull up the zip, that she felt a firm hand on her shoulder, alarmed,she twisted round to face its owner.  
"So Dr Alexander, we meet again." The figure spoke first and Nikki instantly recognized him. It wasn't a pleasant surprise.  
"DI Wensbury," She stated.  
"Good to see you. I'm hoping you're more on the ball this time than last." The two statements didn't really go together and his allusion to their earlier meeting was something she didn't really want to be reminded of.  
"You got your man."  
"Eventually, I didn't get much help from you." He retorted. Nikki, having retrieved her bag slammed the lid of her boot before turning back to him.  
"I can only present that facts as I see them."  
"Perhaps your eyesight is flawed?" Nikki bit her lip, turn her back and walked away towards where she expected to find the crime scene. She was relieved to find a large group of uniformed offices around the white gate at the side of the property and entered through. Briskly, she made her way over to the white tent that stood alongside the remains of a large fallen oak tree.

The garden around it was well kept, a large wooden fence with neatly trimmed climbing roses ran around the perimeter of the garden. It complimented the neatly sculpted borders brimming with an array of pastel flowers that looked like they were fighting for space, the lawn was cricket pitch green with grass so uniform that it must have been cut by hand. It was the type of garden that you would find in a show home and people would aspire to own but quickly find it impractical to maintain. It was a quintessential English garden, marred only by the collapse of the large oak tree whose descent had flattened the fence panels that both isolated this country idyll and kept next door's un-kept jungle at bay. With this in mind, the white tent at the foot of the tree could have almost been a gazebo with tables of seasonal fruit ready for a garden party, but the large group of hi-viz jackets and the blue tape spanning the area quickly spoilt the summer scene.

She opened the flap of the tent and peered in, she was met by a wall of silence. Hushed voices and hesitant movements, indicative of that inbred respect for death. The SOCO nearest the door guided her over towards the patch of exposed soil in the far corner. There upon the ground amongst the tangled web of tree roots, lay a skull so neatly preserved it could have been a stage prop. And as she gazed closer she made out further bones camouflaged in with the slender roots.


End file.
